By: Tiffany Whitfield
When David Butler walks across the stage this May to receive a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science, he will be the first person in his family to receive a college degree. Butler was also the first to receive an associate degree from Tidewater Community College. After transferring to Old Dominion University, he found a sense of belonging among fellow Monarchs and he credits the faculty and support services to his success.
"I choose computer science because I fell in love with coding ever since my first class," said Butler. "Also, I chose ODU because it was very highly rated in the Computer Science field."
Butler is the recipient of the Outstanding Undergraduate Student for Spring 2021 and he completed ODU with a perfect 4.0 GPA. Prior to transferring to ODU, Butler completed TCC's computer programming courses with a 4.0 GPA as well.
"He is the team lead for his senior project and is highly respected by his teammates and faculty," said Janet Brunelle, assistant chair, chief departmental advisor and senior lecturer in Computer Science. "He is dependable, hard-working, approachable, and affable."
"David Butler has impressed not only me, but his entire CS410/CS411W team," said Thomas Kennedy, lecturer in Computer Science. "His team continuously praised his leadership and skill."
After having gone through the program, Butler knows how rigorous and rewarding the ODU's Computer Science program truly is.
"My journey at ODU has been filled with many challenging situations, but an extremely helpful staff helped me along through all the difficult situations," said Butler. "COVID-19 hit during my second semester at ODU, so I hadn't been at ODU for very long before everyone was forced to change their way of life and we all had to adapt." Given the challenging situation, Butler believes the level of accessibility to professors never changed, and they always made themselves available.
During the summer of 2019, Butler interned at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) Wallops Flight Facility (WFF). He put his computer science skills to the test as he participated in the McMurdo Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System (TDRSS) Relay System (MTRS) upgrade study. "He worked hard and managed to learn the critical aspects of the MTRS upgrade, said Scott H. Schaire, Near Earth Network (NEN) Wallops Manager, NASA Wallops Flight Facility. "Mr. Butler's work resulted in better coordination with the National Science Foundation (NSF) for shipping and installation dates of the antenna drive upgrade, confirmation of budget planning for next year, and justification for improving the data transfer rate for MTRS."
"I have had so many great experiences at ODU from the awesome tutors and mentors at student support services, to the many amazing teachers in the Department of Computer Science. So many people have wanted to see me succeed and who always cheered on my accomplishments," said Butler. Now that it's his time to graduate, he will focus on finding a job as a software engineering position working for the Department of Defense.
"The level of education that I received at ODU was far better than I could have ever expected it would be and it lived up to the hype," said Butler.